Behind La Rabida Hospital at 65th Street and Lake Michigan there is an exquisite collection of rock carvings from the 20th century. Or I should say once exquisite, as they have taken a beating from the lake and the weather in recent years.
This spot, where carving began in the 1930s, includes one of the finest carved rocks along the lake, which I call the Peace Rock, as well as a compass beautifully rendered in stone. The compass, however, is on a rock that has already started sliding into the lake, and more are sure to follow absent some kind of human intervention.
This area is within the scope of government planning for lakefront reconstruction, but the track record of those efforts does not bode well for the carvings. Thousands were lost when the blocks that hosted them were ripped up and replaced with concrete and steel at several sites along the lake in the early 2000s.
Meanwhile, just a bit south of La Rabida hospital lies one of the only sections of natural lakeshore in the city, and just offshore from that bit of bedrock is a line a protective limestone blocks that host a number of lovely carvings, including the most elaborate one of all. That’s a carving with 12 separate panels created in the late 1940s and early 1950s and featuring a number of different messages and figures. (You’ll have to scroll most of the way down the gallery to see that one.)
La Rabida Carvings Gallery
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